The End of the Tale?

General Summary

The party found themselves in an underground chamber containing an active arcane circle with glowing runes and a mysterious black portal suspended above it. Tupolo examined some prayer beads while Sylrie collected magical items, including shackles and a ring. The Ring of spell storing seemed to contain the spell "Spirit of Death". When they discovered the portal, Pomplin noticed fresh footprints of an elven woman leading directly into the swirling darkness.

Despite the ominous nature of the portal, Sylrie felt an urgent need to pursue whoever had gone through before them. Tupolo pledged his loyalty to help her through whatever dangers lay ahead. The party steeled themselves and stepped through the portal together, experiencing an intense cold and weightless darkness during the transit.

During their journey through the void, they witnessed three masked figures raising an urn as a flaming comet approached them in the distance. The transit felt both instantaneous and eternal, with eight hours mysteriously passing as they traveled between realms. They emerged in the heart of a swamp containing the ruins of an ancient elvish sanctuary.

The swamp was occupied by hundreds of demons, undead warriors, and hostile forces preparing for battle with militaristic precision. Moss-covered buildings dotted the landscape, some crumbling while others weathered the test of time. At the center stood an imposing elven castle surrounded by a twenty-foot marble wall, emanating an oppressive aura of pain and sorrow.

The sight of the flaming comet triggered forgotten memories in Tupolo, who suddenly recalled his past as an amateur astrologer. He remembered how a similar comet had crashed into his master's tower centuries ago, destroying it completely while he somehow survived. This traumatic event had kept him grounded for hundreds of years before he rediscovered his passion for the stars.

Realizing they were in heavily occupied enemy territory, the party took cover among nearby trees to plan their approach. Tupolo used his survival skills to identify safe paths through the treacherous swamp terrain. Tansy cast a disguise spell to appear as shambling undead, while Tupolo activated magical boots that would leave zombie footprints to help them blend in.

Using a magical gem that granted true sight, the party discovered invisible tripwires connecting various buildings throughout the settlement. They also spotted a sleeping eighteen-foot-tall bull-headed demon using a tree as a pillow, and a building full of unsavory humans carousing on the second floor. The party decided to avoid both threats and find another route.

They successfully performed their way past groups of hostile forces, with one ruffian even offering Sylrie food, mistaking her for one of their own. Near a broken elven statue, they discovered a stone glaive that bore a striking resemblance to Sylrie's family weapon, suggesting ancestral connections to this place. They also observed humans moving supplies through a mysterious archway that served as a portal to other realms, unlike the one they previously went through.

Approaching the castle entrance, they encountered two spirit women in blood-red robes with ribbons covering their eyes. These guardians had gnarled fingers and communicated through sign language, but they allowed the party to pass after recognizing them. Sylrie boldly walked past the guards, banking on being recognized as her mother's daughter.

Using the gem of seeing, Sylrie discovered that the castle's upper floors were pure illusion and revealed a hidden stone door where the front entrance should be. They entered through the invisible doorway into a corridor lined with elven warrior statues. The party found themselves in a maze of corridors decorated with green tapestries bearing the Dewhold family crest.

When Sylrie walked between two enchanted elven warrior statues, they came to life and attacked with stone swords. In another chamber, with a forcefield blocking the door, another statue used lighting to attack. Tupolo absorbed some of the electrical damage while Sylrie fought back with her glaive. Eventually, the magical guardian was destroyed. Meanwhile, Tansy discovered an alchemical laboratory filled with research equipment and important documents.

A bipedal frog-like monstrosity burst through a door, wielding a staff topped with a skull and casting chaotic magic at the party. The creature had wide circular jaws, strange fangs, and wore misshapen leather armor. After a fierce battle involving invisible tactics and multiple devastating attacks, Tansy delivered the killing blow by punching the creature into a wall.

In the laboratory, Tansy found a crucial journal entry numbered 1147 that described dangerous teleportation experiments using star power. The entry mentioned encounters with "the void" and warned about an entity called Ashuran. When she read it aloud, Tupolo experienced a rush of forgotten memories about his past research with his master.

Concerned about Tupolo's connection to Sylrie's family's dark history, Tansy used her medallion of thoughts to probe his memories. She discovered that his master had dismissed safety concerns about their dangerous research and wore a fox mask similar to those used by cultists. The investigation revealed that Ashuran was a powerful entity associated with the sigil found on the Dewhold family's demon thrones.

Pressing a hidden button in the laboratory desk revealed a compartment containing a strange paper that Tupolo thought he recognized but noted was different from constellations he had seen before. The party then descended deeper into the castle using Sylrie's family glaive as a talisman to bypass magical barriers that only allowed DuPont family members to pass.

They entered a chamber containing nine dwarven skulls and a riddle carved into the wall about placing crowns correctly on a shrine. Sylrie recalled family history about dwarves who had failed this very puzzle when challenging the Dewholds. After working together to solve the ancient riddle by placing the skulls on numbered tiles, two staircases were revealed - one leading up and one leading down.

Tansy stealthily explored the upper staircase and discovered a horrifying chamber with whispering mouths emerging from bubbling flesh, tentacles slithering from bone piles, and pools of inky blackness. Six suspended orbs connected by purple light dominated the space, along with spell circles and a throne area. Most importantly, she spotted a young elvish woman chained within a magical prison - Joanna, Sylrie's sister.

A mind flayer sat upon a throne before an urn containing tar-like substance, flanked by demonic creatures. The aberration telepathically contacted the party, demanding they come down and join him. When Sylrie descended to confront the creature, it revealed its demands: the poison that accompanied a certain dagger, and Tupolo's lost journals.

Joanna signed desperately to Sylrie to run, indicating she knew the locations of both items but warning that "the world will be swallowed" if the information was shared. The mind flayer threatened to extract the information through pain if Sylrie couldn't convince her sister to cooperate willingly. Tupolo gave an impassioned speech about the untamable nature of the void and how it would consume anyone who tried to control it.

The mind flayer recognized Tupolo with disturbing joy, expressing delight at having him instead of just his research notes. Combat erupted when Tupolo launched a devastating radiant attack at the creature's mouth. Sylrie followed with a spell that struck multiple enemies simultaneously, while Tansy fought against invisible opponents trying to restrain her.

The battle intensified as spirit guardians surrounded Sylrie, continuously damaging nearby enemies with radiant energy. Tupolo summoned a pack of spectral wolves while positioning himself to solve another puzzle involving floating gemstones. He realized these were the triangular symbols from the hidden note and turned them to redirect magical light beams.

When Tupolo successfully manipulated the gemstones, Joanna's magical prison dissolved and she was freed from captivity. She immediately began preparing for combat, but the party noticed something ominous - a ticking sound emanating from her chest where enemies had placed a magical bomb.

Tansy performed a spectacular aerial attack, jumping from a bridge to deliver a devastating punch to one of the elven women combatants. Upon taking damage, the elven women's disguises failed, revealing them to be blue-skinned, wart-covered hags. The mind flayer demonstrated tactical intelligence by using dimension door to reposition himself strategically.

The mind flayer unleashed a devastating psychic attack that scrambled the minds of both Sylrie and Tansy, stunning them with overwhelming mental assault. As their muscles became lethargic and their consciousness wavered, they could hear Joanna working her magic in the background. The hags watched with malicious glee as the bomb in Joanna's chest continued its ominous ticking, threatening to explode at any moment.

The session ended with the party stunned and facing the immediate threat of the bomb, while Joanna - finally free of imprisonment - raced against time to save herself and help her sister. The mind flayer's cruel smile suggested this was all part of a larger, more sinister plan involving the mysterious entity Ashuran and the artifacts the party had been seeking.